livestock, raising livestock, being a huge part of that. . to this day you still need a man or a woman or young person that can get on a horse, take care of the livestock. ..

>> in the old days they had animal skins to use and there were no modern textiles to repel water or rain or snow. so they would cover their bodies with leather apparel. these are called chaps. derived from the spanish word. >> more cowboys and cattle from big sky country as booktv in american history tv look at the history and literary life of billings, montana, next weekend on c-span2 and c-span3. >> booktv continues with rebecca sive, a public relations consultant who gives advice to women on how to run for office. she talks about some of the strategies used by women who have been successful in local and national campaigns. this is about one hour.

>> thank you, good evening to everyone. i am thrilled to be here and i want to start by thanking all of you and thinking c-span for being here this evening. it is a very exciting time for me. and i think more importantly for our country, we are here this evening with a very important week. we are celebrating some very important times in our history, which this book really would like to be a part of. celebrating a dream of doctor king and also one of susan d'antoni, recognized when we celebrated women's suffrage. a dream of a nation in which none of us would be judged either by the color of our skin or by the number of chromosomes that we have. by the content of our character and our commitment to equal justice.

so this is a special time to talk about this commitment and a commitment of mind to write this book because i felt that it was an important time in our history following what lisa has talked about. and the elections that we have recently have had to recognize that women need to forge ahead to realize the dream of not just freedom but also equal and full participation in our political life. i started thinking about this book a few years ago actually after the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. and i thought, well, what is needed here. i talked to a lot of people about it. the sort of typical book, i looked at the book that was out there and i saw all of them were sort of facts and figures and had to meet deadlines for filing petitions on time or fund-raising reports or something like that. there were wonderful books about immunity organizing, which we can talk more about. i hope a requisite step in this

process is a part of this. but what i didn't see and i thought someone can write this book, and i thought, why not me, what i did not see is a sort of truth telling and frank and inspirational painter for women who want to be public leaders and you want to be elected officials and appointed officials and i thought, well, why not forge ahead? we are at a point in our history when we have had a lot of experience. we have been at this for decades. there's a lot of great wisdom to be shared and a lot of lessons to be learned and stories to be told and encouragement to be given to our sisters and their brother's want to help her sisters move along. i have decided on this inspiration book. i have thought about what are the attributes of this book.

there are a number that came to mind. but i tried to put this in the short version for this evening to share with you and i came to the conclusion that there were three primary attributes but i hope that the book would have been the stories it would tell me advice it would sharewood reflect this. the first one was that book "skinny b* *." what i thought about as i read it, it was a completely different genre, they say just do it. if you don't want to be fat, do not eat cupcakes. and i thought, well, i can understand that, i may not be able to apply that, but i think it is true in this context that if you want to campaign to win, then stop sleeping late.

so i thought, okay, i'm going to be as honest as that and as frank as that, as those authors had been. the second attribute i thought about in this book harkens back to the early years for many of us that have been involved in the fight for women's political quality, was an early book called sisterhood is powerful edited by robin morgan. and i thought well, yes, what is important about don 40 years hence. what is important to me? what is important in this kind of a book is when we assert that power and when we assert that sisterhood, we win not only for ourselves as individuals, but for women as a group. and that was a message that i wanted to communicate in the book. one that is terribly important today when there is perhaps, at

times, too much focus on the individual and her achievement and not enough on the group and what it takes to succeed, which is a group effort. and i was imagining the themes of the book and i remember a very early mind of shirley chisholm. other things, it and i'm paraphrasing here, she said that she had been discriminated against more as a woman and an african-american. and in part she ran for president because she was a woman and wanted to make that statement. i think that what i gather from that statement by the congresswoman is that we must understand as women as we fight in this biblical sphere that

there will be that ongoing discrimination, but that's no reason to go back and corner and not try. there was very interesting comments that she made after she lost. saying that i said it had asserted a set of beliefs and showed a woman could do it. we have had other women follow her. so i wanted to communicate that idea as well. and there is no sense in being afraid and holding back. i concluded that this book would kind of speak colloquially from my hometown of chicago. it would say what time it is and those who want to be public leaders and influential voices. i will tell you several excerpts. but i wanted to just save briefly about why i felt it was the person to write this book.

because i think any number of women have had a great deal of experience and could also write the book. what i concluded was that having been both a public official for many years and a leader of women's advocacy organizations for my whole adult life, that i understood, so to speak, the insider drill, once you're in that office where those decisions are made, how that works. what i also realized is that i am really a person who identifies the women and the men beating down the door from the inside and that is the perspective that i wanted to bring. because i think that if we are, to move beyond the numbers that we now have in congress, as wonderful as they are, that we have to take some doors down and we have to work hard to encourage women to run. so i thought that, well, i am no

longer a public official or running an organization. but i continue as an advocate as i always have been. so let me take a try at this. and the other thing is i thought about it are the women who are as heroes and inspirational people for me as i have done my work in this realm. in addition to chose home, i thought about jane addams and ida wells and i realized that none of these women minced words or shrunk from a fight. most importantly stay true to their heart and that is the other really important piece of why i was upheld the right to vote. with other women, we all do the best we can and we try to stay

true to our hearts. so i want to -- one moment. i would like to share with you several excerpts, as i mentioned. but let me just tell you first about how the book is organized. it is a series of lessons intertwined with the advice and the inspirational stories and i interviewed about 30 women from all over the country. i also wrote from the public record, and a number of other women, secretary of state clinton as well, as i put it in the introduction to the book. these women were from mississippi to manhattan. it was deliberate, i think it's really important to share the notion with women who have public office that there are important offices everywhere. they are not only in washington

dc. she not only letting big organizations. each and that was the commitment that i made in terms of sharing stories. lessons in the stories are divided into four sections in the book. the first is called everyday is election day. the second is take on the big boys. the third you can never cared too much. and the fourth is confront co-op control. so i will read some experts and i look forward to the qa discussion as you heard me to say. there are some amazing women in this room and a lot of great stories that i imagine. once we can all benefit from hearing at this very important time. so this excerpt is from a chapter called just show up. back in the late 1980s when i was a member of the chicago park district board of commissioners, i was invited to attend a

community meeting. barack obama greeted me when i arrived. he was a young and ambitious organizer working on chicago's poverty-stricken south side and i chaired the chair the committee overseeing the parts 300 million-dollar budget. despite what you hear about political deals being made in smoky back rooms, politics is not fundamentally a private game. maybe you haven't been invited to a back room. so what? politics starts with organizing people and getting them to join together. that is what neighborhood leaders were up against and they invited me to it attends the developing communities project, and that is what i was up to when i responded, that would be my pleasure to attend. it was a hot august night and i was a long way from home. the invitation was for a meeting in a church basement in a housing project and an

african-american community about as far from downtown as you can go and still be in the city speaking both geographically and figuratively. nevertheless, i went. not because obama was a big deal. he was not back then. and not because i thought i would be hearing some new agenda from improving the parks i haven't heard yet or didn't agree with. irony new the organizations with every other group and every other underserved neighborhood, they would want a better fieldhouse, better basketball courts. but the night had gone on and i showed up. i even remember what i wore. why? because this mean means something in my own campaign to become a person who mattered, and i wanted to stand out and just showed up. so in this second excerpt from a

chapter called dive in and start swimming, this chapter focuses on -- primarily on debbie stabenow. if you know who she is, chair of the senate agricultural committee and also an important fact i will repeat here the only woman in american history to be a sitting u.s. mail senator for election. no small deal. so dive in and start swimming. too many women want to seek public office are afraid to dive in. others think you have to be an insider to win. some will only enter after someone else decides they have earned it. and a certain right to be there, whether you are fighting a

righteous cause or you want to be part of this. do not assume the competition will be fair. take the hint and go back to your corner and wiped the sweat off your brow and come back swimming. barack obama is in excellent role model in this department. no foreign-policy experience and no executive experience. we have been presumed to believe that he can be president of the united states and he didn't let his short resume deter him, nor was he deterred by the fear that others will accuse him of hubris. simply stated that he wanted the job and is willing to enter the ring to fight for it. and sarah palin is another person who chose this route. we don't have to like these folks agree with their political views to appreciate their strategic brilliance. they know that picking a fight with the big guy helps in the

effort. qe-1, louisiana governor and my favorite example knew it as well. before he was governor, he was 25 and running as an unknown for a seat on a louisiana public service commission, but he didn't spend his time writing position papers or trying to get the big boys to like him. but he picked a fight about rate increases with standard oil. the biggest boy in louisiana at the time. he said this huge company was his enemy, criticizing precipitously and constantly come making speeches to people struggling to pay their utility bill because he was at cingular opposition and long became his equal. debbie stabenow is only one of 30 women ever elected to the u.s. senate and she has been reelected twice beating an oval or in more established canada and before that she managed her husband's campaign for election

to the campaigning and she said you are the one who likes campaigning and talking to people. she was an incumbent with deep roots and he had more political experience, but debbie stabenow ignored his advantages and believed in herself and her cause, keeping the local nursing home open to those who depended on it. she did not know the inertia of health care policy, nor did she know all of the ins and outs of the nursing home operation. but she knew she if she won, nursing home residents could use medicaid to pay for their bills. she knew she was young, but she knew that she could and would learn more. all of your experiences are valuable in public service utility of political science degree.

so in this third excerpt i read, this is a chapter called use your connections just like the men do. >> this should not be a dealbreaker for a woman seeking election. of course mail and political dynasties hardly raise an eyebrow when it comes to the qualification of their members. >> officials may find their political connections offputting and decide not to put themselves forward. others drive down other dead-end streets to the notion that women should somehow be purer than men and therefore should be taken advantage of being insiders.

as a practical matter, someone may open a door to a leadership opportunity and the woman who walks through has to earn the votes, all over the place and they are littered with guys who thought otherwise. i tell the stories of two people in this chapter. one is lisa madigan, the attorney general of illinois whose father is a speaker of the house. and according to many, the most powerful man in illinois. but the other story that i tell here is the story of catherine campbell. the first woman chief justice of louisiana supreme court who recently retired. i think it is quite compelling. kitty kimball was born into a political family with a web of powerful connections and she married into another. she was first elected to a judgeship on the first woman judge in her district in 1992.

when i went to see her, she worked in a large courthouse and couldn't get inside without going through airport type security. after you get past that, a big guy walks into the elevator and rides up with you and works you wants you down the hall to her office. that is where you find justice campbell behind a very large desk. in my home parish, the mother's father was the sheriff and after he died, his uncle became sheriff. her husband was a member of the louisiana house of representatives and in the district where he grew up and she first ran for judge replacing her husband's uncle. she says her husband being a politician was instrumental to herself and you get the picture. clearly this isn't for the faint of heart for the woman who fears political competition in the public square and will always foster criticism. but softball is only played at campaign photo ops, playing hardball is the way to win.

so what i would like to say is in these three excerpts and throughout the book. but there are some -- that the tactical approach that women need to adopt is the same and make sure that both your votes get to the other guy another girl. but the messages and the beliefs that you bring to that fight, the belief in women and the power of women, it is what is different and important. thirdly, what is so different and important is recognizing some of these truths to we are sharing for a minute as well. being willing to do things that are considered polite or aggressive or unfounded or go

against the history of women and making the place a cleaner place. and so what this says is that every day is election day. yes, you can take breaks to hang out with your girlfriends and go to pilates class or whatever it is. but if your dream is to be a public leader, you recognize that you have to fit those breaks in. but that if you do, you will experience a certain kind of joy, and i will speak to myself here, that you won't find elsewhere. and i would just like to close by sharing this thought with you. i would begin with my job as a women's advocate in the early 70s.

i organized a group of women and we were collective and that was the thing to do at the time. and there was enormous difficulties and we were not paid, we published it ourselves, we voted around and we went to bookstores and were very successful. but there were a lot of sweat and hard right are that were part of the process and i have to tell you that i went downtown and i saw this book. you know, chicago, in the bookstores at marshall fields in downtown chicago. and it talked about equity for women. and those of us who had put the book together have become leaders in the process. we had realized her dream. so that is what i intend here. and i hope that as we go forward, this book can be some part of the effort that so many people are engaged in.

to educate and train and encourage and mobilize. and women all over the country that will go forth. last but not least, i would like to close with just one of those inspirational stories. it is the story of one page. she is the superintendent of schools in the east jasper school district in the southeastern part of mississippi . close to where the civil rights workers were killed. in the 60s. but she was born in the delta and she grew up chopping cotton and living in a three room shack outside of clarksdale. she went to the local community college and became the first african american homecoming queen at the college. she then had two children and had her phd, i think him by

the time she was 30. i was talking about when by derrick johnson from the head of the naacp in mississippi. and he said that you're going to love talking to her. and i did. and i thought to myself as we finished the interview, if she can realize this dream at 39 years old, chopping cotton and 1980s in mississippi, then we have a duty to encourage other women and ourselves to work equally hard. and give them whatever tools we can. and i am happy to talk further. [applause] [applause] >> as we go into the q&a, i understand people should come to the microphone. i would like to recognize three

women who have helped me along the way who are here tonight. marcia greenberger, heather booth, and jane pinsky. thank you for being here. [applause] >> yes, sir? >> [inaudible] my niece is and always kornbluth and she wrote the book through the cracked ceiling. and politics are a tad different. but that doesn't mean that blood is not a lot thicker than water. there are some things that you have a really downplayed. that is all things being equal, there is confidence and responsibility in specifics about how to make things better. >> yes. >> despite of what once sex is. the clintons have actually proven that ronald reagan is not the teflon guy. i have not forgotten the whitewater responsibilities of what happened at whitewater,

options trading, the mass of pardons that were not observed in all sorts of things like that. >> right. >> than the other deal with winning the election in new york. it is courtesy of rudy giuliani having all sorts of individuals must with his private light that make bill clinton look tame plus his prostate. >> and you for your comment. this is a really important point. i appreciate you're raising it. one of the things i believe, for my own experience, and i talk a lot about in the book. it is how fallible we all are. and how we all make big mistakes. how we falter sometimes. it can be our own fault. but that that is no reason to try to keep trying to do good. and i think that that is where i come out. each of us has our own threshold, as you say, politics

may vary. but where i come out and what i want to do in my own writing and speaking as just do the very best that i can urge people keep trying to make the world a better place. i am particularly interested in seeing women do that. i think that for all of us it is a helpful thing in the times that we are in. >> the clintons have given new meaning to do not ask and do not tell. which means vice versa, therefore there is no responsibility. >> a few. >> when you were introduced, there were many things that were said about your background. having known you in chicago. >> yes, ma'am. >> were many things that were said about your background. but i won't share all the

tricks. but there are two things that i think monks money. rebecca was one of the first, if not perhaps, she was the most prominent early white woman who supported the mayor of washington when he ran in the primary. with a very unpopular thing to do. and played a role in galvanizing for one of the great mayors of great political leaders. also convene women across stich wins the race, geography, all parts of the city and brought us all together. you think some people before and i want to thank you for this dynamic role and you said that you were writing this is truth telling, frank, and inspirational. and i found this and i also know that that is how you have lived your life.

>> that is -- you have given us this truth telling frank and inspirational guide for how we can move ahead. but it is a time in which individual women may be moving ahead. and there is a push back on so much of what we care about. she's in north carolina and they are pushing back on everything. certainly about women and voting rights and reproductive rights. >> absolutely. >> about health care and delivery of services. it is happening in state after state. >> right. >> i'm wondering if you have advice and perhaps the advice of the book. but if you have advice in facing this backlash against women in particular and against the fundamentals of this active democracy that you are talking

about. >> thank you, heather, for asking that question. part of the advice comes from when i went from washington. and i will tell you a story about that. when i was called by his campaign manager in october of 1982, when all robberies in taking the lead at that time. and also would you join the campaign and i said i was waiting for your phone call. able to use a more stories about that relationship. but i then said, yes, of course. but being a pushy girl i am, i also said that i have talked to harold about this. so i met with him in a little chinese restaurant across the street from his apartment on 53rd street in hyde park and we have a pocola.

and always the mayor to me, he took the cocktail napkin under his class and he said that i had said to him that it doesn't really matter to me whether you win or lose because i'm really committed to what you stand for. and this is what i am always going to fight for. he looked at me under his eyebrows and said, okay, rebecca, listen to me. and he rode out on his cocktail napkin a list of 16 words, in which he got 90% plus though, as he put it, it wouldn't matter what white people dead, that he would win the primary. and that was a very ported listen to me that i think about as i think about these times that we are in. you know, the battles that we are fighting. because i think that i believe it is true that if we were able

to successfully mobilize all of the women in the so to speak precincts or wars that women should have the right to control their own bodies, that we could prevail in greater numbers in these legislative districts where there are presently anti-choice people making laws. so that is one strategy. and i think the other thing, and i try to talk about this in the book. i do say in the book that the issue of women's reproductive rights is an issue that is uniquely ours to state an obvious fact. the women who want to be in public life need to understand. and i include myself in this that we haven't always done the best job of making that case. but we sort of have fallen prey to the right thing to do and if

we do this and maybe it will matter. maybe it hasn't maybe it hasn't. i think that we need to do a better job of explaining to women beyond the natural constituency. and i tell a couple of stories about this. one is the vice president of the school board and it is a story about trying to adopt a sex education curriculum and a very conservative committee. the interview them at the end of the conversation, she said some issues are really in a matter of weekly hours and we have to make them a priority. so you're welcome. ms. greenberger. [laughter] >> some heavy lifting here, i hope you are sympathetic.

>> unsympathetic and very impressed by the book. i wanted to underscore a couple of points with both unique and extraordinarily helpful and insightful. and one was actually the juxtaposition between the individual stories and the stories themselves are part of history. but they are seeing this from a perspective that history does not always tell. they are part of an individual person, in this instance, a woman's ability to step up and i've been in make that plunge and difference. but the other thing is the practical how-to. so from the kinds of speeches, and if you have a success, how you publicizing it. and the step-by-step advice

throughout the book that is so important. i have been here for many years. >> thank goodness. >> thank you. but we are issue advocates that are very much relating to people who end up getting elected. with the one of the issues we are working on right now is equal pay. >> that is right. >> there is a discussion about why women don't just step up and negotiate for themselves harder. and you draw parallels between issue advocacy and advocacy on behalf of yourself to run for office. >> right. >> but also the parallels, i think of what may make some women step back either as candidates for public leaders to

convince her own advocates to farepaying. a very interesting study has shown that in the context of equal pay. women have salary information and feel that they know what they are talking about, they will negotiate. >> just. >> what your book each does for me that is critically important that, a great contribution, while it is a traffic an interesting and inspiring read, it also gives us how to use. >> yes. >> that is so empowering important for women. some of it may seem very straightforward. what it does is resonate as true and you are articulating a way that i think allows women to be much more intentional and to have the confidence that they could make this work.

>> thank you for saying that. i'm just tell you telling you a story. it is in the book and related to of marcia has said. it is very important to tell the story of how someone could and the practical steps in what they were. marsha mentioned earlier that there is a reception at the white house this evening for leaders of the civil rights movement. and i was reflecting on a 40 while. listening to her just now, i remember the story of another woman that i interviewed who is from new mexico. and she started out as a very typical neighborhood mom. it was not a sign at the school crossing. so she said that she went and organize your friends, she did something about that. and they said why don't you run for the pta. and she said i do not know how to do it.

so she learned. then she was encouraged to run for office and she became a county board member and then a few years later she was invited to be a special assistant to the cabinet secretary salazar. on the pta to the white house, learning what he's learned along the way. and i exactly what women to know that it's not women in a fark off place that knew all the rules. but it was able to all windows and if we falter we can do that. thank you for saying that. >> yes, ma'am? >> rebecca, i don't know you, but i wish i didn't. >> it's a pleasure to meet you.

>> there are a number of women political leaders that are prime ministers and something we haven't paid too much attention to, specifically women's issues. some have. i'm wondering if you have any thoughts about that panorama of women leaders and what they have to teach us. >> i think two things. one is that having women out these decision-making tables matters is whether or not they are explicit advocates for women's issues. seeing a woman run a country. seeing them with margaret thatcher, even i'm saying that this is very important. so at some level i think that the more we see women in power, the better it will be for young women. and i do say in my book and i do

have a chapter called six easy pools. and i talk about the fact that can win with and for women. and that is something that i really believe. so i would say that if i had been able to sit in a room with margaret thatcher, say who said she was not a feminist. i would have reminded her that feminists enabled her to be in the place where she was. and that like it or not, she did spend a bit of time on issues and help her spend more. so i guess that i one at all times sort of find a way to

capture the strength and the power and the voice that those women have. just to say to the younger women in particular that you can have that voice as well. and when you have that come i hope you will speak out on behalf of of them. >> hello, my name is tammy peterson and thank you for being here today. >> it is a pleasure to. >> i have enjoyed your book. we need to start competing like men and i think that is great advice. also i'm thinking that the public response and her colleagues respond differently. can you talk to some of the ways that women can experience running for office differently and how we can prepare ourselves for those differences? >> important thing to think about is there is, in the literature -- there is a literature a set of challenges

that are recorded that women face. they worry about work and family issues and the way that they can raise enough money. they wait to be asked and they worry about whether they are qualified for the job. one of the things that goes on among a lot of women is that they do share those concerns. they have some difficulty kind of getting past them. so that is something that i think that women need to face and recognize. we'd recognize that we can be way more like men in that respect. if a woman, for instance, says that my state representative is working on education matters in my community and i care about this, then she doesn't need to say that i need to go get a phd in education. she can also say as he probably did that i want to be a state representative. which is what men typically do. so looking at the historical challenges and figuring out a

way past them, there are some other challenges that are unique to women. there's a lot of literature about how women are judged in terms of appearance. there has been current debate about that. also until recent years a lot of discussion about whether you are single or married without children and the challenges that that presents. so my approach here, and i have talked about this in the book, i tell stories in the book of women that have walked just passed this. just walked right past all of that. take senator mikulski. the longest serving woman in the u.s. congress in our history. does she fit that standard profile that everyone says you have to be?

no. she successful in her district? >> just. >> she has been reelected many times. is she successful on capitol hill? absolutely. and the world of discussion about those issues? and tell a story in the book and this is another story about a woman named monica banks who is the chancellery clerk and the only african-american to ever be elected in a county which is predominantly white. unlike the area further west. michael told me that when she was in high school, my view in a segregated community, a white woman who was county clerk came to talk to them. and she told them about her job at career day. and monica told me that she came back home and she said that i can do that.

if you look at the barriers and the challenge and she was contemplating. i think that these barriers are real. i think sometimes you go after an office as monica did. it wasn't open, she chose another one. at the same time i think that there are a lot of examples in our current women's leadership of women who have taken on traditional -- nontraditional paths or come from a minority group. there are two surest women senators from the state of california, 10% of the entire female population of the u.s. senate. so i think that i have a chapter called the personality self test and it was a bunch of attributes to think about whether you have them or you don't. to take the measure of them.

and so i thank you and please proceed. please do. >> you're welcome. >> am wondering if there is information about the types of policies that women support. the diverse array of values and maybe the legislative bodies in which they said they are influenced based on the presence of women. >> just. this is a very important matter. it is historically the case that when women started to be elected in meaningful numbers if not large numbers, and the state legislatures, that issues like rape and domestic violence and equal pay came to the floor, equal rights at the time. what also happened was women formed a partisan legislative caucuses work on these issues. so there is absolutely a truth to the notion that there are

issues that when women are in office, they tend to focus on this and that those helping solve those problems is of great benefit to women and girls. it is also true that in this era, there is less of that going on. but i have read a couple of articles recently and i think one in "the new york times" that talked about how the women u.s. senators, republican and democrat come together on a monthly basis. to try to identify issues that they can work on together. but they are successful or not. while i am not part of this by any stretch, a pollyanna, it leads exactly to that place. where are the issues that we can work on together and out of the access with those and the trust that is built. maybe we can move further.

that is kind of the practical approach that i would recommend. >> 30 or 40 years ago when women started being neglected in large numbers, women who raise their children, they establish themselves in the community. i remember when [inaudible name] was in misery and should be home to put her dinner on the table for her husband. and do you see a trend in younger women now are women were going to take the risk of failure and start early? >> there are two examples that come to mind. one is senator gillibrand that has very young children on the democratic side. the other is governor haley in south carolina, who i also believe has young children. those are just two. it is one of those traditional

barriers. you are right that women waited because they thought if i can solve this childcare problem, maybe it won't be so bad. but now they understand that the sooner they get started, the further they will be able to travel and more likely impact and influence they will have and i will do share one number with you that i came across recently in this regard that i thought was quite telling. it was a number that said that the arc of a politician or public official career is 12 years from the place at which you start, whatever playset is coming to the place where you end. and so then i come back to barack obama is one example. jump up as high as you can as fast as you can if you think you have the power and the fortitude

and intelligence to do it. those numbers hold when you look at the careers of a number of people. that isn't to say that you may not stay in a last-place in a very long time like members of the u.s. senate. they're probably not going to aspire to be president. but i would encourage women to figure that out. i would actually think that the longest chapter in the book becomes part of this having -- how to figure out how to manage both. and i mentioned lisa madigan earlier of the illinois attorney general. she talks a lot in that chapter about how she has worked that out in a number of other women and by the second president of

malta. she was the house president and her husband was a househusband and the youngest female investor that we've ever had. he can be done, probably should be done if you believe that now. >> we are going to have one more question. i was just saying that we have time for one more question. i am really embarrassed that i neglected to mention the title of the book, which i know that rebecca did. everyday is election day, a women's guide to winning in the office. if you need a copy, we have plenty of copies from. you can order from us 24/7 online at www.politics prose.com. and we hope to take one more question and thank you very much. >> hello, i will make this quick. we start by saying that i'm not

in the political arena at all. i'm here and i very much enjoy the lectures. i am dipping my toes into the political arena in my realm. i was just wondering if you have any advice for bringing women's issues to the forefront because i'm going to be the head of my association starting next year in the first woman to ever have done this in the last 20 years. i don't want to scare anybody. do you have any advice for how to bring women's issues to the forefront? >> you can't hide the fact you are a woman. so i wouldn't say i am shy about saying this is what i did and how i did it. i think in so far there is a cliché about all of these issues and women's issues. it is a cliché kind of because it's true. so i don't know what your association is about. i imagine that if he thought about what your agenda will be

as a leader that you will find each places with women's issues components when you think about it a bit. i hope you will do that. >> thank you. is your experience with the other male colleagues tend to be very supportive or is that just -- >> i think that there are probably as many experiences as there are in this room. i think that i am a big fan of being polite but insistent. if you know that you have a good point of view that is a good one. you are welcome. i want to thank politics and prose for having me here because it is a treat. i want to thank c-span for joining us this evening and thank you to all of you. if you would like me to sign the book, i would be glad to. please have a wonderful evening.

[applause] >> every weekend, booktv offers 48 hours of programming focused on nonfiction authors and books. you can watch it here on c-span2. >> most of us went to school during a time when we heard the saying sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. tell that to the holocaust museum guard who was murdered by a neo-nazi whose evil and violent allusions were kept alive his online community. tell that to the women who live in fear of being raped because of misogynistic online threats they feel that i'm. tell that to the cyberbullied kid to stay home from school because they are traumatized by the times they have received anonymously online. tell that to tyler clementi who

committed suicide due to a tweet they ridiculed him. the sticks and stone saying is simply not true. the world of websites, twitter, youtube, and facebook. in the online world, words and pictures and videos and online games are infecting the globe with a virus of hate that is a threat to people and to society. viral hate containing this on the internet, degrading and potentially violence inspiring content are not a necessary byproduct of freedom of expression. we believe that the freedom, as important as it is, and it is, it does not trump human dignity. we wrote this book because we believe that people should not sit idly by when we see online attacks on people because they are different. the anti-defamation league week, the 100-year-old institution,

the national civil rights committee has a mission to stop the definition of the jewish people and to promote justice and fair treatment for all. as part of this mission, definition defamation has worked for years and with online hate, without question is harming individuals in society. certain aspects of internet hate have received international attention like cyberbullying. but unfortunately the problem in general is not high in the consciousness of the internet community and parents and educators and of leaders. so we believe that the indifference to a growing and harmful problem needs to change. we care about these issues not just because we are civil rights activists and have seen the effects of physical attacks and verbal attacks on minorities. this is also personal. abe is a holocaust survivor and

is from that place and time are propaganda was the accomplice to the death of millions. the holocaust didn't begin with anything other than words. at the fourth global forum last month, abe and i both explained that the virus of hate is spending everyday ways that propaganda experts never could have imagined. this includes being a towering fighter of online hate and he is a natural. and i am now an openly gay man happily married. my husband is in the audience. but growing up, i endured the epithets and degrading comments that were partly socially acceptable. hate speech on the internet covers a wide range of things. as we explain in the book, the internet has become an organizing and communications tool for extremists on the right and on the left. before the internet, such people

would meet down dark alleys and exchange the propaganda in plain brown wrappers. now with the push of a button and the click of a mouse committee reach billions in seconds. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. .. welcome. our c-span viewers as